Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ; Kashromi) is the capital of Egypt. The city's metropolitan area is one of the largest in Africa, the largest in the Middle East and the Arab world, and the 15th-largest in the world, and is associated with ancient Egypt, as the famous Giza pyramid complex and the ancient city of Memphis are located in its geographical area. Located near the Nile Delta, modern Cairo was founded in 969 CE by the Fatimid dynasty, but the land composing the present-day city was the site of ancient national capitals whose remnants remain visible in parts of Old Cairo. Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life, and is titled "the city of a thousand minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture. Cairo is considered a World City with a "Beta +" classification according to GaWC. Old Cairo Old Cairo (Egyptian Arabic: مصر القديمه , Masr el-Qadīma), also known as "Historic Cairo," or "Islamic Cairo," is a part of Cairo, Egypt which pre-dates the Fatimid Caliphate city of Cairo, founded in 969 CE. This area also encompasses Coptic Cairo and its many old churches and ruins of Roman fortifications. Coptic Cairo Coptic Cairo is a part of Old Cairo which encompasses the Babylon Fortress, the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church, the Greek Church of St. George and many other Coptic churches and historical sites. Coptic Cairo was a stronghold for Christianity in Egypt until the Islamic era, though most of the current buildings of the churches in Coptic Cairo were built after the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century. Islamic Cairo Islamic Cairo ( , Qahirat al-Maez) is a part of central Cairo around the old walled city and around the Citadel of Cairo which is characterized by hundreds of mosques, tombs, madrasas, mansions, caravanserais, and fortifications dating from the Islamic era.e.g. O'Neill, Zora et al. 2012. Lonely Planet: Egypt (11th edition). In 1979, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) proclaimed Historic Cairo a World Cultural Heritage site, as "one of the world's oldest Islamic cities, with its famous mosques, madrasas, hammams and fountains" and "the new centre of the Islamic world, reaching its golden age in the 14th century."UNESCO, [http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/89 Decision Text], World Heritage Centre, retrieved 21 July 2017 Cairo Metro Cairo Metro ( , lit. "Cairo Tunnel Metro" or ) is the rapid transit system in Greater Cairo, Egypt. It was the first of only two full-fledged metro systems in Africa and only four in the Arab world. It was opened in 1987 as Line 1 from Helwan to Ramsis square with a length of . As of 2014, the Cairo Metro has 61 stations (mostly At-grade), of which 3 are transfer stations, with a total length of . The system consists of three operational lines numbered from 1 to 3. As of 2013, the metro carried nearly 4 million passengers per day.Sood, Suemedha (15 March 2013). "Subway systems by the numbers". BBC. Retrieved 2014-07-28. The Cairo Metro is run by the National Authority for Tunnels. The lines use standard gauge ( ). Greater Cairo Area The Greater Cairo Area (GCA) ( ) is the largest metropolitan area in Egypt and the largest urban area in Africa. It is the third largest urban area in the Muslim world after Jakarta and Karachi, and the world's 16th largest metropolitan area,R.L. Forstall, R.P. Greene, and J.B. Pick, "Which are the largest? Why published populations for major world urban areas vary so greatly" , City Futures Conference, (University of Illinois at Chicago, July 2004) – Table 5 (p.34) consisting of all cities in the Cairo Governorate as well as Giza, 6th of October, Sheikh Zayed City in the Giza Governorate and Shubra El Kheima and Obour in the Qalyubia Governorate, with a total population estimated at 20,500,000 (as of 2012); area: 1,709 km2; density: 10,400/km2. In the northern region of Greater Cairo, just east of the Nile, is the district of Mataria ( ), a location of the ancient city of Heliopolis, one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt. References Category:Cities